The feature in this newsletter is "Blasphemizing"
The Bible by Sandy Simpson, Apologetics Coordination Team, 7/26/06.
The
reason for this article is to detail how some Bible societies are mistranslating
the Bible, using the names of false gods and substituting them for the
One True God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Israel, the
"I AM", YHWH, Jehovah. In doing this they are following the agenda
of the WCGIP Leadership endorsed by Don Richardson and John Dawson of YWAM,
and headed by people like Daniel Kikawa of Aloha Ke Akua, Richard Twiss
of Wiconi International, Terry LeBlanc of World Vision Canada, and many
other indigenous leaders. To read more about this movement you can
go to our WCGIP
page.

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Okay. I realize that "blasphemizing" is not a proper English word.
But it is the only way I could express what has been happening in recent
years with regard to the translation of the Bible into many languages around
the world, substituting the names of "supreme being" gods from many cultures
in place of the name of God, YHWH.

In my research into the World Christian Gathering on Indigenous People
(WCGIP) events or the movement which Richard Twiss has termed the "First
Nations" movement, I began to realize that a number of Bible translation
societies, some of which endorse the WCGIP events, have begun to substitute
other gods names for YHWH, the I AM in Bibles all over the world.

Also the American Bible Society, according to Lighthouse Trails Research
Project, is now promoting Emerging Church materials. The Emerging
Church is a syncretistic new idea in Christendom to mix all religions together
so that postmoderns can pick and choose what they want from them, such
as yoga, contemplative prayer, and even the names of other gods apparently.

Jul. 24, 2006 The American Bible Society, an organization
that has been around for nearly 200 years, has been respected and trusted
by millions. However, it has just been brought to our attention that the
ABS online ministry "For Ministry" is promoting the emerging church and
contemplative spirituality, and in no small way. Under the heading
authentic_church, For Ministry is offering hundreds of resources that include
everything from the Alpha Course, to books by emergent leaders like Doug
Pagitt, articles about and by Dallas Willard and Richard Foster to books
and articles by Brian McLaren. The "For Ministry" authentic church resource
database is very extensive and links to many articles and books that not
only promote and encourage contemplative and emerging but also permeates
with New Age ideas such as an article called the "Future is Now," which
discusses futurist and New Age sympathizer Leonard Sweet. (Lighthouse trails
Publishing, 7/24/06)

All this to show that many Bible societies are following the same agenda
as the WCGIP, Emerging Church and the New Apostolic Reformation which is
headed by C. Peter Wagner of the International Coalition of Apostles, Global
Harvest Ministries and Mission America.

IN A NUTSHELL ...

The reason for this article is to detail how some of these Bible societies
are mistranslating the Bible, using the names of false gods and substituting
them for the One True God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God
of Israel, the "I AM", YHWH, Jehovah. In doing this they are following
the agenda of the WCGIP Leadership endorsed by Don Richardson and John
Dawson of YWAM, and headed by people like Daniel Kikawa of Aloha Ke Akua,
Richard Twiss of Wiconi International, Terry LeBlanc of World Vision Canada,
and many other indigenous leaders. To read more about this movement
you can go to our WCGIP
page.

"ORALITY"

There is a teaching in the New Apostolic Reformation which is Dominionist
and Globalist called "Orality" which is partially responsible for this
shift in Bible translation.

Orality is connected with the (New Apostolic Reformation)
NAR heresy of "contextualization." Orality permits the Word of God to be
"contextualized" to a pagan culture through images, icons and symbols,
thereby retaining the pagan elements of that culture. Using "redemptive
analogies" (another heresy), these pagan beliefs and practices are claimed
to be "redeemable" and are "christianized." Even the name of God is
being changed to that of pagan deities! (The Newest Heresy of the NAR:
Orality by Discernment Research Group, Herescope, 3/8/2006)

I was shocked to find out that John D. Rockefeller has had a long involvement
with Wycliffe and is a well known Globalist.

(There is a) landmark book called "Thy Will Be Done"
which is about Nelson Rockefeller's involvement with Wycliffe Bible Translators.
Of course he used them for his own Latin American empire ambitions, and
his role as a politician and in intelligence-gathering operations was also
mingled with Wycliffe -- he funded them and they agreed to his conditions.
One point that the authors (who are liberal leftists with a conscience)
make is that Wycliffe was persuaded to change and alter the Scriptures
in their translations so that the indigent people would be pacified by
a neutralized Gospel. There are some stunning examples. John
D. Rockefeller had set up the University of Chicago to be his own personal
think tank in the academic community, and he commissioned an army of linguists,
psychologists and social scientists to come up with new "theories" about
humans which would further this degradation. We have been horrified in
re-reading this book 9 years after our first reading (and with more understanding
now) that the "contextualization" and "syncretism" and "orality" ideas
may have been purposefully developed in order to accomplish this sinister
purpose. We've already tracked some quasi-secular social scientists and
educators who served as "change agents" to import these ideas into the
seminaries, but this is the first time we have realized the roots -- both
in funding and ideology. ... (Email from Sarah Leslie, 7/20/06)

To read more about the New Apostolic Reformation Dominionist/Globalist
agenda called "Orality" go to the following article:

This "Orality" teaching laid some of the basis for the current Bible
societies translation policies. Wycliffe claims that one of the first steps
in translating the Bible is to find out what the name of the "supreme being"
or the "local deity" is in the cultural language they are translating.

From the outset one has to deal with identifying the
name for the Supreme Being, God. This can be difficult and potentially
divisive. However, each language and culture appears to have within
it a ‘ “homing instinct” for God – deeply buried by the sin and corruption
that affects all cultures, yet still there’ (Williams, 2004: n.p.). Each
religion has a different understanding of deity that is based upon how
the Supreme Being is defined (Thomas, 2001: 305). The characteristics
of the local deity must be identified so that it can be determined how
these will impact the understanding of God. Is it possible for any
language to totally explain the meaning of God? Or is there a need to add
further definition or explanation? The challenge is to identify what intrinsic
capacity exists within the language that helps provide the meaning of God.
(Theological and Cultural issues in Bible Translation, A lay person's guide
to a basic understanding of what is important, Article by Kirk Franklin,
Executive Director Wycliffe Australia, http://www.wycliffe.org.au/html/missiological_articles/missiological_article007.htm)

I have to posit the question: when did the early translators of the Bible
EVER try to find out the names of local gods called "supreme beings" when
translating the Bible into Greek, Syriac, Latin and other languages of
the time? Only general terms meaning "god" were used as in "Theos".
Notice that the Greeks were not given a translation that stated "In the
beginning Zeus created the heavens and the earth." This Wycliffe
method adopted from ideas in erroneous books like the reprinted "Eternity
in Their Hearts: Startling Evidence of Belief in the One True God in Hundreds
of Cultures Throughout the World" by Don Richardson, is not only ridiculous,
it is blasphemous.

Following are some examples (among many) of where the name of YHWH is
being substituted for false gods by various Bible societies.

A religious controversy came and went here in Sarawak before
I even heard about it. The Bup Kudus, the translation of the Holy Bible
into the Iban language, was banned two weeks ago, and dis-banned today.
The Sarawak Tribune I picked up was so information-poor, I could not discern
from the why they banned it, when they banned it, or why they had lifted
the ban. I found a partial explanation here: The secretary-general
of the Malaysia National Evangelical Christian Fellowship, the Rev. Wong
Kim Kong, said from Kuala Lumpur there had for some time been difficulties
over the fact that some words used in Islam were also used in Christian
publications. Some Muslim leaders thought this could perplex Muslims
who picked up such books. Among the words that cause concern is "Allah."
It's the word Muslims use for the deity they worship, but the Arabic word
pre-dated Islam and is also used by Christian Arabs when referring to God
- despite the considerable differences in the Judeo-Christian and Islamic
conceptions of God. The Iban translation of the Bible uses the term
"Allah Taala" for God, while the other banned Christian books, in Bahasa
Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia, also use "Allah" for God. This is
thought likely to be one of the problem areas for the Home Ministry. I
think the Home Ministry made the right move by lifting the ban. But the
language issue is an interesting one. Allah is used interchangeably
with Tuhan to mean God in Bahasa Malaysia, but Tuhan is the original Malay
word. When my son learns the meaning of an Arabic dua in school, Allahumma
(Oh God) is still translated as Ya Tuhan. I don't speak any Iban at all,
but I would be very surprised if Allah is the original or preferred word
for God, what to speak of Allah Taala (Almighty God), which is rarely heard
even among Malays outside of Islamic religious sermons. So why would the
Bup Kudus translators go with that translation? It is reminiscent, as Anak_Alam
pointed out, of the uproar over Arabic Bibles that began with the Bismillah
(that's it in the upper right of the white column on my page), a distinctly
Islamic invocation whether it has an intelligible meaning to non-muslim
Arabs or not. (http://www.bingregory.com/archives/2003/04/27-bup_kudus.html)

Yet the deity known as "Allah" to Muslims is not YHWH. Read the following:

The false god "Allah" is not the same as the One True God eternally
existing in Three Persons Who is YHWH, "I AM".

"Allah is the name of the only God in Islam. Allah is a
pre-Islamic name coming from the compound Arabic word Al-ilah which means
the God, which is derived from al (the) ilah (deity). It was formerly the
name of the chief god among the numerous idols (360) in the Kaaba in Mecca
before Mohammed made them into monotheists. Today a Muslim is one who submits
to the God Allah." (Is
Allah the name of God?by Mike Oppenheimer, Let Us Reason Ministries,
2006)

Read the entire article above to understand that Allah is not YHWH.
Therefore the substitution of Allah for the name of God in Bible is a sacrilege,
a blasphemy. As seen above, Allah has been substituted for the name
of God in many Arabic Bibles by many Bible societies.

Allah ... is traditionally used by Muslims as the Arabic
word for "God" (not "God's personal name", but the equivalent of the Hebrew
word El as opposed to YHWH). The word Allah is not specific to Islam; Arab
Christians and Arab Jews also use it to refer to the monotheist deity.
Arabic
translations of the Bible also employ it, as do the Catholics of Malta
who pronounce it as "Alla" in Maltese, a language derived from and most
closely related to Arabic, as well as Christians in Indonesia, who
pronounce it "Allah Bapa" (Allah the Father). (Free Encyclopedia, http://experts.about.com/e/g/go/God.htm)

HANANIM(Korean Bible, International Bible Society)

Hananim in Korean is written
which allegedly means "The God". But it was actually an ancient god
of Korea.

Hananim = The supreme god of ancient Korea. As the
master of the universe he moves the stars. Hananim punishes the wicked,
and rewards the good. (Micha F. Lindemans, Encyclopedia Mythica,
Article "Hananim" created on 03 March 1997; last modified on 17 March 2002
(Revision 2). http://www.pantheon.org/articles/h/hananim.html)

Even the name of Hananim is debatable as to its origin in Korean religion.

To a large extent, problems involved in the relationship
the
term Hananim and related forms to ancient Korean religious concepts are
not resolvable. Against the widespread view that there was such a
concept and a word for it going back to the very beginnings of Korean religious
thought, the fact is that we have no textual attestation of such a word
until the 1880s or at most a few years earlier. (Hananim, Gari Keith
Ledyard, gkl1 at columbia.edu, Thu Dec 11 12:17:26 EST 2003, http://koreaweb.ws/pipermail/koreanstudies_koreaweb.ws/2003-December/004016.html)

Regardless, the use of the god Hananim in the Bible and Korean Christianity
was clearly a way to syncretize and thereby make Christianity more inviting
and palatable to the Koreans who were and still are deeply rooted in shamanism.

In an attempt to redress this imbalance, this study offers
an analysis of the affinity between Korean religious culture and Protestantism
in order to bring into relief various points of contact that strengthened
the appeal of the imported faith in the host society. It is argued here
that the dramatic progress of Protestantism in South Korea during the
1960s, 70s, and 80s [1] was due in part to the way the imported faith converged
with certain concepts and practices of Korean religious tradition. [2]
It is also argued that Korean clergy, in an effort to make Protestantism
more acceptable to potential converts, accentuated certain messages and
doctrines, particularly those pertaining to shamanistic worldview.
Examples of convergence between Korean religious tradition and Protestantism
abound, but the following themes stand out as the most important: an emphasis
on this-worldly life; the concept of Hananim; the image of God as
the savior; the primacy of faith-heating; and the centrality of ethics
and family values. [3] (Korean Religious Culture and its Affinity to Christianity:
The Rise of Protestant Christianity in South Korea, Sociology of Religion,
Summer, 2000, Andrew E. Kim, http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0SOR/is_2_61/ai_63912429/pg_3)

That Hananim is part of a pantheon of Korean gods is beyond question.

As a polytheistic religion, Korean Shamanism does worship
large numbers of spirits, but the supreme God in its pantheon is Hananim.
In
Korean Shamanism, Hananim is believed to govern the universe and control
the lives of the people through the powers entrusted to lesser gods, ranked
according to their functions (Jo 1983: 94-103). Following Hananim in the
ranking and power are other heavenly gods, including the sun, the moon,
and the star. Next in the ranking are gods of the earth, the river, and
the mountain, while the spirits of the underground world are at the lowest
rank. (Korean Religious Culture and its Affinity to Christianity: The Rise
of Protestant Christianity in South Korea, Sociology of Religion, Summer,
2000, Andrew E. Kim, http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0SOR/is_2_61/ai_63912429/pg_25)

This brings into question whether or not most Korean Christians even know
Who God is today. They may have the biggest churches in the world,
but what "god" are they worshipping? Hananim may have been a supreme
being of Korea, but that does not make Hananim YHWH. The "I AM" revealed
Himself exclusively to Moses and Israel, not to the Gentile nations.

To see the corruption of the Korean Bible, we need look no further than
Genesis 1:1. Translated from Korean it is stated this way: “The God
(Hananim) creates heaven and earth in Tae candle.”

This is quite obviously a sycretization of original Korean shamanistic
teachings and Christianity. The International Bible Society translated
the Korean New Testament. There is a PDF at IBS that explains their
translation ethic.

If you read through this document you will begin to understand the departure
from literal translation procedures of the past into "meaning based" translation
of the present, opening the door wide open to misinterpretation of the
Bible. A good case in point is the current "Message Bible" in English.
It is not really a Bible at all but a bad commentary on the Bible from
a man who has an agenda.

The IBS is also the distributor of the TNIV. IBS is also partnered
with Wycliffe. To date, IBS has translated and published Scripture—directly
and in partnership with Wycliffe Bible Translators—into more than 600 languages.
IBS is currently translating God's Word in 48 languages that need understandable
Scriptures. (http://www.ibs.org/aboutibs/index.php)

World Vision is working as a front-line communicator, along with YWAM,
of the doctrines and practices of the New Apostolic Reformation and their
false apostles and false prophets. Notice that IBS partners with
a cult, namely the Seventh Day Adventists. The AEA is working hand
in hand with AD2000 (a C. Peter Wagner/Ralph Winter brainchild) and World
Vision.

Please see the attached report from Wayne McGee on the recent
Bassam 2000 Consultation attended by 350 key leaders from 30 nations, a
joint effort of the Association of Evangelicals in Africa (AEA),
Interdev, AD2000 & Beyond Movement and World Vision International.
I was there and what a privilege it was, in so many ways! Praise God!
(http://www.ad2000.org/re00605.htm)

AFRICAN SUPREME BEINGS

It is clear that many translations of the Bible into African languages
has been corrupted with the names of "supreme being" false gods of various
African tribes.

African supreme beings are spiritual beings or divinities
who are as varied as the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa, the world's second
largest continent after Asia. Belief in a supreme being is universal
among most of the over sixty peoples of Africa. Supreme beings carry a
distinct and unique quality in African cosmology as creators with all other
supreme attributes in the theocentric universe. The nature, characters,
and attributes of the African supreme being reflect indigenous religious
orthodoxy prior to the introduction of, and in spite of, the influence
of Christianity and Islam, and these qualities reflect the continuing diversity
of the African peoples' traditional sociopolitical structures and languages
within the current modern nation-states. The African supreme being
is usually associated symbolically with the varieties of indigenous cultures
of the peoples. The indigenous concepts and conceptions of most African
supreme beings have been retained by the adherents of the religions that
were introduced into Africa in the ritual practices and the translations
of the sacred texts (Bible and Quran) of those religious traditions.
(African Supreme Beings, Religion Study Guide, excerpt, http://www.bookrags.com/other/religion/african-supreme-beings-eorl-05.html)

So, though these various "supreme beings" of Africa represent "indigenous
religious orthodoxy" they were nonetheless used in translations of the
Bible as a substitute for the name of God, YHWH.

CONCLUSION

This is a widespread problem that ought to make concerned Christians
sit up and take notice. But instead many churches are going along
with this program and that of the WCGIP in using the names of false gods
in worship and in God's Word. Those who are translating the Scriptures
this way are "blasphemizing" the Bible, God's Holy Word, which is sure
to bring a curse down on their heads.

Deut. 4:2 Do not add to what I command you and do not
subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that Igive you.Deut. 12:32 See that you do all I command you; do not add to
it or take away from it.Rev. 22:18-19 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy
of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the
plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this
book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of
life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.